Oil prices retreated Dec. 1 amid uncertainty surrounding an expected extension of OPEC+ production quotas after the group delayed its meeting to Dec. 3.<\/p>\n
OPEC is hoping a couple of days away from the market’s glare will allow cooler heads to prevail and rescue a deal to extend production cuts that analysts say is needed to prevent an oil glut in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
Disagreements\u2014at times vehement, according to sources\u2014between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over how quotas will be managed and enforced led to a breakdown of formal OPEC talks on Nov. 30, and a meeting with Russia and other partners scheduled for Dec. 1 has now been pushed back by two days.<\/p>\n
“The latest spat between Saudi Arabia and the UAE raises the risk of taking the energy market off the path towards rebalancing,” OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya said in a note. “The UAE resistance to delaying the output hike was not expected and will likely force OPEC+ to have production discussions become a monthly event.”<\/p>\n
NYMEX January RBOB settled 2.12 cents lower at $1.2204\/gal, and January ULSD was down 2.41 cents at $1.3473\/gal.<\/p>\n
OPEC delegates had said the framework of a three-month extension favored by kingpin Saudi Arabia and several other members had been reached, but a deal has been held up by the UAE’s insistence that quota-busting countries be held to account with so-called compensation cuts that have to date been largely unenforced, except on itself.<\/p>\n
Without an extension agreement, the OPEC+ curbs are scheduled to ease from the current 7.7 million b\/d to 5.8 million b\/d from January, which many analysts have said could overwhelm the market given the recent surge in crude production from quota-exempt Libya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oil prices retreated Dec. 1 amid uncertainty surrounding an expected extension of OPEC+ production quotas after the group delayed its meeting to Dec. 3. OPEC is hoping a couple of days away from the market’s glare will allow cooler heads to prevail and rescue a deal to extend production cuts that analysts say is needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,8],"tags":[118,1093,1069,966,252,28,639,178,56,213,84,1473,145,27,638],"yoast_head":"\n